David Tao becomes One Million Star judge

The new (Chinese) One Million Star recorded their first episode on the 20th. For this season, the show has invited David Tao, Albert Leung (Lin Xi), James Li, and Kay Huang to be the judges. Eighty-four contestants performed and half have already been eliminated. Host Matilda Tao revealed, “The judges eliminated ten contestants in a roll! I saw the other contestants holding hands and crying together backstage just now!”


Matilda calls James the “ruthless judge”; James agreed, “I think I am too ruthless, but then I thought, if they can’t even handle something like this, how are they going to survive in showbiz?” The award-winning lyricist, Albert, who has written over 3000 song lyrics, is a judge for the first time. He expressed that he is a man with compassion, but has discovered his dark side after this show, “It’s the first time I’m deciding someone else’s fate, and can feel the power and desire. After recording the first episode, I realize that I was very despicable in pressing the light (strict on giving points). I prefer those with emotions over techniques.”


It’s also David’s first time being a judge at a singing competition show. He expressed that he would like to hear the contestants sing more of their own works instead of pretending to sing like other singers, “They need to have feelings instead of being like a robot. If they have potential, I won’t rule out the possibility of signing and training them.” However, David’s opinion seem to collide with John Yuan’s, who has been a judge for the show since season 1, “The ones we think are not okay, he actually thinks they’re fine. Maybe they are good contestants, but I think that possibility is very low!” Matilda immediately teased, “We only kept him (John) on the show out of compassion.”

For this new season, Matilda’s pay has also doubled to $250,000 TWD per episode. David, Albert, and James brought their managers, stylists, and assistants along, totalling eighteen people, costing $2 million TWD. As a result, each episode costs $4 million TWD to make. Matilda explained, “We’ve renamed the show to ‘Chinese’ One Million Star because we want to include all Chinese people in the world. We want to find the next Jay Chou, the next David Tao. Unlike other shows that likes to do things for fame, we are very strict on choosing contestants. But our judges will definitely not eliminate a contestant on purpose just to marry them home (referring to Jerry Huang).”

Source: Chinatimes